Monday, March 10, 2008

A Few Of My Least Favorite Things...

There's nothing quite like starting the work week knowing thousands of kids (including people I know, who aren't really "kids" but I'm using the word anyway, because it saves time--unlike this semi-lengthy aside) are on Spring Break, and that a scant two days ago, my alarm would have gone off at 4:50 in order to wake me up as early as I was up this morning. There's nothing quite like getting kicked in the crotch either. And so I decided hey, why not start Monday off with some nice complaining about things that suck (call it my own personal On Notice Board--sans Bears, who haven't really bothered me, so I have no beef with them.)
(Felt a bit like this, earlier today)

Daylight Savings Time
Why can't Georgia follow the lead of Arizona and parts of Indiana and realize how abjectly useless daylight savings time is? Why keep around a relic that predates mass quantities of streetlamps? Why force millions into Mondays like this one, where we start the day even more tired than a normal Monday, and then find ourselves not at all hunger when 1 o'clock roles around? (Probably because it's not 1, damnit.) Schools no longer wait for sunrise to get started (or at least for the bus to come around, as there are huddled masses of young'uns lurking in the pitch black of the asscrack of dawn most mornings.) It was light when I got out of work (and sometimes from when I'd get out of the gym) anyway. If they want us to get more light, step in, offer Federal requirements for employers to offer Flex-Time. Let folks (like, say me) come in at noon and leave at eight during winter, and come in at 7 and leave at 4 in summer. Less traffic, more time by the pool, more time to sleep in when it's cold=fitter, happier, more productive.

(Yes technically she works for Fox News, but she's highly intelligent, a graduate of an SEC that's not a hated rival, and admits to poor financial numbers, so I can over look the FOX part.)
Inflation In General, Gas Prices In Particular
I read this morning that wheat prices are up another 40%. This happens right as I'm in the midst of shopping at Whole Foods more, cutting out fast food almost entirely, and loading up on whole grains (including wheat). Meanwhile, I'm paying as much for a half a gallon of milk as I paid for a gallon in 2006. These things suck, and are at highly statistically noticeable levels (yet oddly enough, don't get computing when the Federal Government calculates inflation...hmmmm.) And then there's wildly attractive Fox Five financial corespondent Sandra Smith warning of $4.00/gallon gas this summer. Diesel fuel meanwhile, is already almost there (one place was up to $3.90/gallon yesterday.) My commute is no fun (I average about one fill-up per week) but beats the hell out of the heady days of 2005 when I figured that, at $1.45/gallon diesel was cheap enough to make a 144-mile roundtrip commute from Athens work 5 days a week. And remember when we were told those $2+/gallon gas prices were the result Katrina-related damage and once repairs were made they'd be back down? If so, remember when the Georgia DOT pitched making GA 400 portions toll, they said that'd be temporary too. And that was over a decade ago...

Overhyped Blog Bands That Don't Live Up To The Hype
Over the weekend, I caught a bit of SNL (yes, my weekend was lame--this coming weekend being St. Patty's, will be the make-up for that). The musical guest was Vampire Weekend--who I had heard much blog-based praise of, but hadn't really bothered to check out. Part of this that I've found so-called blog bands (bands that get hype/fame/record deals based on largely blog-based hype/praise) to be a middling lot. Sure, I've found some great music that way--Subtle, Spank Rock, The MGMT--but there's also been a fair amount of crap. Or, if not crap, just something that made me go "wait, you heard what I'm hearing now, and wrote that about it?" (In fact, that was my response when I finally heard Peter, Bjorn and John for the first time.)
Suffice to say, Vampire Weekend fell into the "why are these guys the next big thing?" category for me. No wonder the music industry is falling apart, when people can call--with a straight face--a bunch of kids that look like refugees from Groton playing music that wouldn't have sounded out of place in the early 60s "fresh and innovative." It just supports my as-yet-totally-posted theory that the vast majority of music critics have no real musically background (either in overall music history, nor music theory.) And if it turns out Vampire Weekend really is a bunch of trust-funded, private school kids (like The Strokes), I shall be royally pissed.

Sports Doldrums
By Friday, Georgia's basketball season should mercifully be over (Ole Miss I believe is slated to perform the mercy killing.) In about two weeks, March Madness starts, then MLB kicks off. Until then we get...well...nothing. Which sucks because AM sports radio has been my calmative against the insanity and torture that is metro Atlanta traffic. Yet it doesn't help much when all they have is NASCAR, the NBA, and hockey talk. And a memo to their advertisers: French Canadians and Russians make lousy pitchmen.

And ok, here you go Nation:

1 comment:

Jamie said...

Wow, Will, you're pretty pissed off!

(And a here, here for flex time.)